Ada Lovelace links

There is a lot of source material about or by Ada on the internet. Here are some key documents you may find interesting.

A Sketch of the Analytical Engine, with Notes by the TranslatorAda Lovelace’s notes as they originally appeared in Taylor’s Scientific Memoirs, a journal devoted to publishing translations of European scientific documents.The original paper Lovelace is translating concerns itself with specifics of the mechanics of the Engine; far more interesting in retrospect are the ‘notes’, essentially a new paper which is much longer than the one translated! They can be read more comfortably at theunsurpassed Fourmilab site, an excellent resource for all things Analytical Engine.

August de Morgan on the mathematics of Ada Lovelace
de Morgan was one of 19th century England’s most important mathematicians, a family friend of Lovelace’s mother who tutored Ada intermittently. Here he worries that her mathematical powers, “which would require all the strength of a man’s constitution to bear”, will be too much for her female body.

Babbage on Lovelace
Many period sources confirm the close friendship of Charles Babbage and Ada Lovelace, but none is as vivid as this one. A letter home from an American visitor who spent an evening with Babbage a year or so after the death of Ada.